Brands today are clamoring for campaigns with viral potential, but it’s easier asked for than done from an agency perspective.
“It takes a true human insight and finding the right way to marry a brand’s beliefs and values with current and social conversations,” says A.J. Hassan, VP-Creative Director at Leo Burnett, in an interview with Beet.TV.
An Emmy Award-winning creative director, Hassan helped develop the hugely popular #LikeAGirl campaign for Always, and she says the simple human insight behind it is that a young girl goes through a constant confidence crisis. So a campaign built around a ubiquitous playground insult (“You throw like a girl” and so on) proved to be “a perfect storm” for storytelling.
“It was a really exciting example of where I think conversations are going and how brands can win with their audiences,” Hassan says.
She observes that the creative process remains fundamentally unchanged and centered on storytelling, though there are different mediums now and new ways to measure a campaign’s effectiveness. But it’s an exciting transitional time when many brands are learning that being up on a TV screen isn’t as effective as creating messages and stories that appear in the palm of someone’s hand.
“Conversations have to be more personal,” she says.
We spoke with her during Advertising Week in New York last month.
This segment is part of a Beet.TV series presented by Virool titled “Emotions and the Virality of Videos.” The series can be found here.
